


By a Thread

by 10MonthDay (AwwKeyboardNo)



Series: Sunshine Universe [2]
Category: Hey Arnold!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Hey Arnold - The Jungle Movie, Light Angst, Platonic or Pre-Relationship, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 03:12:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12902706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwwKeyboardNo/pseuds/10MonthDay
Summary: Arnold read once about what happens when a person’s soulmate dies.





	By a Thread

**Author's Note:**

> I have no real idea where this came from--just that during this scene I thought, "this would've been -brutally- scary/upsetting in the Soulmate Uni." 
> 
> Which meant I, obviously, had to write at least a little.

As they hang off the cliff, hands barely holding onto the aging wood of the broken bridge, it hits Arnold that he is about to die.

It is a funny feeling, he thinks, to have that awareness and be allowed to contemplate it.

There’s so many thing that he hasn’t done, that he will now never do. He’ll never graduate school, never get a job, never get married, never—any hundred of things.

What he _will_ have done is break his grandparents’ hearts. They have never said as much, but Arnold’s parents’ disappearance took a heavy toll on them. And now they will lose another child.

He can hear Gerald and Helga breathing, quick and panicked and desperate—and something inside his soul _shatters_ , because he is going to die with his soulmates. He has dragged them down with him and now they’re going to pay for his mistakes. He wants to do something, _anything_ , so that they might live, but there’s nothing _to_ do.

Arnold read once about what happens when a person’s soulmate dies.

It is a fate almost as bad as death—a pain so visceral it is like cutting a hole into the fabric of one’s very being. Often, people do not live through it, but suffer until they cannot any longer.

At least, fate has offered him this mockery of kindness. None of them will have to feel that pain. They will die far too quickly.

(Something inside him wants to laugh bitterly that he has found the bright side of _dying_.)

These thoughts flit through his mind in a manner of seconds. Even now his arms are burning with the waning strength of holding on. He turns to stare at the two at his side. He wants to say something, anything—but he has nothing but empty platitudes to give. Helga catches his eyes with her own. They have lost an edge of panic and are now just resigned and terribly sad. They say that eyes are the window into the soul. He has never gotten to tell her that her soul is beautiful.

Tears prickle at Arnold’s eyes.

“Helga, Gerald,” he chokes out. “I’m so sorry.”

Gerald might let out something like a sob, but the sound is lost in the sound of rope uncoiling.  
  
For one brief, terrifying second, Arnold is certain that the bridge has finally given way. His gut clenches as he waits to fall. But it doesn’t come. Instead, there is the wonder of hearing another voice. Arnold looks up.

“Come on up, _mijos_.”

He cannot see the man’s face, whoever he is. And, somehow, the shock of it all has him hang there inanely for another couple of seconds and ask, “Who’s that?”

It is, of course, Gerald who gets him out of his daze. His voice is incredulous. “ _Who cares_?”

Arnold tamps down on the urge to sob in utter relief.

The next couple of minutes go by very quickly. In what seems like an instant, he has found his parent’s best friend Eduardo (for real this time), La Sombra is revealed to be alive—if just barely so, the Corazon is lost, and then La Sombra dies (and, again, for real this time).

But it feels like Arnold’s heart has fallen off the cliff with the Corazon. “It was sacred to them! And now it’s...gone.”

“Hey, Football Head, we’re alive, okay?” Helga’s voice seems to echo in his ears, and though she continues to speak, he can hardly hear over the sudden wave of relieved sorrow.

He’s alive…His friends, his _best_ friends, and his soulmates are alive. They’re alive!

He cannot choke back the sob. He grabs Gerald and Helga into a tight hug as he weeps. They are warm and here and alive and they hug him back just as tightly.  
If nothing else goes right today, he at least has this, has _them_.

**Author's Note:**

> hahha i hate this.
> 
> I feel a little guilty that -this- is the second thing I've written for this universe. For those (2ish) of you who've asked, I'm trying to write the Olga/Mai fic, but whether or not that will happen is still up in the air. 
> 
> I'm working on an actual post-tmj fic. Not one related to these fics. No clue when that'll be up, I wanna get ahead in writing it before I start posting.


End file.
